VLAD the bikie jailer

Queensland’s Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act—VLAD—is designed to eradicate criminal bikie gangs, but its critics say the new law will sweep up innocent people as well, and is already being used to harass. Ian Townsend spoke to legal experts, police and club members for this Background Briefing investigation.

It’s a typical summer evening, and friends and family are having a backyard barbecue on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

They also happen to be members and friends of the Rebels Motorcycle Club, which is now a declared criminal organisation in Queensland.

Under Queensland's new Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act, with the menacing acronym VLAD, just about everyone at this barbecue could be considered to be a participant or an associate of a criminal gang.

'Some of the things they're saying about us on TV, that we sell drugs to kids, you got to be kidding,' says the president of the Sunshine Coast chapter of the Rebels, Tony Jardine.

'I got kids, I got grandkids, and there's no way in the world I would put up with that sort of thing.'

With a High Court challenge looming for the bikie laws in Queensland, there’s a debate about how effective the laws have been so far.

After the brawl involving the Bandidos on the Gold Coast last September, the Queensland Government promised to rid the state of violent gangs and rushed through new laws.

The laws they brought in were written to target organised crime gangs generally, not just criminal motorcycle clubs.

‘The offences that created this environment aren't organised crime offences,' says Terry Goldsworthy, a former detective and now professor of criminology at Bond University on the Gold Coast.

'So that’s why I'm quite interested to see, when the government is advertising that it's to fight the organised crime, well, where are we seeing these powers being applied to organised crime, which is your money-laundering, your high-level drug production, your drug-trafficking, that type of stuff?’

This article represents part of a larger Background Briefing investigation. Listen to Ian Townsend's full report on Sunday at 8.05 am or use the podcast links above after broadcast.

Since the crackdown in October, under the anti-bikie Operation Resolute, Queensland Police say they’ve charged 565 alleged criminal motorcycle gang participants with 1219 offences, ranging from riot to drink driving. However, that’s just one percent of all 122,106 crime offences reported around the state during the same period. Of those, less than 50 were charges under the new Queensland anti-bikie laws.

'In some ways we've had been criticised that we haven't arrested that many people under the new legislation,' said the Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Brett Pointing.

'I think that's a really good indicator that the laws are being applied fairly, considerately, and we’re only applying those laws were we believe that we can prove the intent of the legislation. That is, to go after criminals.'

'I think it's showing compliance with the new legislation.'

However, Terry Goldsworthy says there’s little evidence that the laws are having any impact on organised crime at all.

He says most bikie crime is low level drug, assault and driving offences, and cites crime statistics for the 2011/2012 financial year in South East Queensland that he says show that outlaw motorcycle gangs were responsible for less than one percent of all offences reported.

Those sorts of statistics are disputed by Hugh McDermott, an organised crime researcher from Charles Sturt University

'You don't join a club if you just want to ride a motorcycle,' he says.

'You join those clubs basically to be a criminal.'

Hugh McDermott says the role of bikie gangs in crime goes much deeper that the police statistics suggest.

'Bike gangs and other organised crime groups don't do it in isolation,' he says. 'This doesn't work in a vacuum.'

Transcript

Ian Townsend: In a backyard on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, on a balmy summer evening, several families and friends are having a barbecue.

They also happen to be members and friends of the Rebels Motorcycle Club which, with around 70 chapters and as many as 2,000 members, is now a declared criminal organisation. But only in Queensland.

So how many members in your chapter here?

Tony Jardine: We've got about 20 on the Sunshine Coast, on the whole Sunshine Coast, at the moment.

Ian Townsend: How many times have you met here?

Tony Jardine: It's not so much a meeting…

Man: It's not really a meeting. It's just mates getting together because we miss each other's company.

Ian Townsend: Under Queensland's new Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act—with the menacing acronym VLAD—just about everyone at this barbecue is a participant or an associate of a criminal gang.

The president of the Sunshine Coast chapter of the Rebels is Tony Jardine.

Tony Jardine: Well, an associate according to them is anybody that has been to our clubhouse or been on to one of our events and you're an associate. So if I walked down to the supermarket down here or went to the Plaza Shopping Centre and two people there, I don't even have to know these people, but they've been to one of our dos, that's six months jail.

Ian Townsend: And that's six months in a special jail set aside just for bikies, where they'll wear a special pink prison uniform.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman:

Campbell Newman: They are bullies and they like to wear scary-looking gear, telling them to wear pink is going to be embarrassing for them. Thugs and bullies need to be brought into line.

The Rebels are a declared criminal association, and this is how the VLAD Act defines a 'participant' of that association: 'A person is a participant in the affairs of an association ... if the person has attended more than one meeting or gathering of persons who participate in the affairs of the association in any way'.

The Queensland Law Society says the terms defined in the legislation are very broad. Annette Bradfield is the society's president.

Annette Bradfield: They can capture many people and that's the concern that the Law Society has had with this legislation.

Ian Townsend: I went to a barbecue with some Rebels, there would have been more than three of them, last week…

Annette Bradfield: Oh Ian, I don't know whether I should be talking to you!

Ian Townsend: No, probably not. It was private property and they being legal experts assured me I was fine. Who could it theoretically rope in?

Annette Bradfield: Well, it really can be any group of three or more people.

Ian Townsend: On private or public property?

Annette Bradfield: Exactly, wherever. And it's up to the person then. So once the police prove, yes, you were at the barbecue or whatever with three or more people, it then turns on the actual person to prove that that group of people wasn't formed or doesn't exist to commit certain criminal offences.

Ian Townsend: So technically though, I could be considered an associate or a participant?

Annette Bradfield: Yes, you could, and it's up to you to prove that you're not.

Ian Townsend: Attending just one bikie barbecue might not make me a participant in a criminal gang, but if I go to another, the onus is on me to prove that I'm not. I put my predicament to Queensland's Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie.

The wording of the Act seems quite broad: 'to take part in the affairs of the organisation in any way', even attending a barbecue.

Jarrod Bleijie: But if you're meeting for the first occasion I would find it hard to believe that you could be participating in the affairs of an organisation if one of their purposes is a criminal activity. The other point I make is there are certain safeguards in place in that the courts determine all of this.

Ian Townsend: It might seem like a long bow to draw, but I could break the law just by doing my job and interviewing a group of people.

The laws are being widely called anti-bikie laws, and the only groups that the Government has put on its list of criminal organisations are bikie gangs, but the laws are worded to target 'organised crime' in general. They were pushed through by Queensland's Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie after a bikie brawl on the Gold Coast late last year.

Jarrod Bleijie: When you have 50 Bandido bikies, criminal gang members, go out in public to a cafe and start a brawl amongst tourists, and men, women and children, innocent people, they took it too far and we had to respond and we had to respond fairly tough.

Ian Townsend: Soon after that brawl, the police set up Operation Resolute and the Government introduced its tough new laws. The head of Operation Resolute is the Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner, Brett Pointing.

Brett Pointing: I think the reality is in the Australian context is that criminal motorcycle gangs increasingly are putting themselves out there as the face of organised crime and very much taking the criminality to the streets.

Ian Townsend: The brawl outside a restaurant on the Gold Coast last September was frightening, but it wasn't what you'd think of as organised crime.

Terry Goldsworthy is a former detective and now professor of criminology at Bond University on the Gold Coast.

Terry Goldsworthy: The offences that created this environment aren't organised crime offences, so that's why I'm quite interested to see, when the Government is advertising that it's to fight the organised crime, well, where are we seeing these powers being applied to organised crime, which is your money-laundering, your high-level drug production, your drug-trafficking, that type of stuff, murder, extortion? I mean, we're really seeing these laws being applied to minor things for a couple of worn-out Odin's Warriors rocking up to an ex-club where they actually live, getting arrested and charged. I think there was a brawl outside the gym down here a couple of days ago where they got the special emergency response team to come down and take out the fellow for a fight on the side of the road.

Ian Townsend: Disorganised crime in some ways.

Terry Goldsworthy: Yeah look, plenty of disorganised crime. I think you could safely say they engage in some really stupid crime.

Ian Townsend: Terry Goldsworthy says the crime statistics for the 2011/2012 financial year show that of 88,000 offences were committed in south-east Queensland. Less than 800 were attributed to outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Terry Goldsworthy: And you come back with very low percentages somewhere around between 0.9 percent and 0.4 percent.

Ian Townsend: So less than one percent. Is that of total crime reported?

Terry Goldsworthy: That's of all crime reported, yes.

Ian Townsend: What does that include? Does it include traffic offences?

Terry Goldsworthy: It does yeah, it does. So that includes anything, as you said, from minor offences such as drunk, disorderly et cetera, through the murder. And in retrospect I guess if you look at the bikies, and I did obtain some data from the police under the right to information legislation, and it showed that the highest ranking offences committed by the bikies on the coast here over a five-month period were in fact low-level offences such as unlicensed driving, breach of bail, and low-level drug possession.

Ian Townsend: We'll put a link to Terry Goldsworthy's research on the Background Briefing website.

Hugh McDermott: You don't join a club if you just want to ride a motorcycle. You join those clubs, these are what we call outlaw motorcycle gangs, which are just criminal gangs, to basically be a criminal. You don't join it for any other reason. These are people who commit horrific crimes; murders, rapes, significant drug importation and sales, and have a long history of it. And they are very well organised and they run the methamphetamine production in Australia and base their transportation of that and other drugs throughout the country.

Ian Townsend: Hugh McDermott says Terry Goldsworthy's assertion that motorcycle gangs are responsible for only one percent of crime is way off the mark.

Hugh McDermott: There's no way that's true. I haven't seen that, but I'll tell you what, there's no way that is true, less than one percent. But once again, like I was saying, you've got to understand that the bikie gangs and other organised crime groups don't do it in isolation. This doesn't work in a vacuum.

Ian Townsend: Hugh McDermott is saying bikies are working with other criminal gangs in huge underground rackets making billions of illegal dollars. In the past week we've heard claims of outlaw motorcycle gangs involved in corruption in the building industry, and as we'll hear later, they've been fingered in a big international money laundering and drug ring.

Since last October, when the anti-bikie laws came into Queensland, police have charged more than 500 bikie participants, but only 44 of them were charged under the new laws. The vast majority were charged with offences that already existed, such as traffic violations, assaults, and especially drug offences.

Queensland's Deputy Commissioner Brett Pointing:

Brett Pointing: I wouldn't go as far to say that criminal motorcycle gang members have a monopoly on the drug industry, but I think they're the major shareholder.

Ian Townsend: But those charges existed before these new laws. If you'd have had a big crackdown, in spite of these new laws you would have probably still had the same result. That's not really evidence that the new laws are any better or worse than the regime before.

Brett Pointing: Well, I think the fact that the new laws were needed is evidence that the previous methodology wasn't working and I guess that's the key point. I think we're at the crossroads here in Queensland, that if we just look back over the landscape over the last decade what we've seen is criminal motorcycle gangs growing parallel to the growth in the amphetamine market, and criminal motorcycle gangs have grown by over 50 percent since 2007, so Queensland is really at the crossroads. We either do nothing and I think leave a terrible legacy to future generations of Queenslanders, or we do what we're doing now and do our very, very best to make sure that Queensland's a safe state into the future.

Ian Townsend: Brett Pointing says police around Australia are increasingly familiar with the role outlaw motorcycle gangs play in crime.

Brett Pointing: Anecdotally, qualitatively we're arresting people sort of around Australia every day of the week who are members of critical motorcycle gangs.

The growth in the amphetamine market and perhaps the growth also in the internet, which has allowed new types of crime, has made these gangs much more competitive. I think it's fair to look at every chapter like a franchise. So as groups have grown it has been important for other groups to match that growth to maintain that franchise. The Rebels in particular, Australia's biggest club, have grown rapidly to 1,200 members Australia-wide. I think their internet site boasts 21 international chapters. They're very sophisticated at criminal organisations.

I don't have the data on this and that's another challenge, but in the Australian context, certainly in the Queensland context most patched members of criminal motorcycle gangs, not all, but most would have criminal convictions at some stage in their life.

Tony Jardine: I've got a criminal record. I've done a couple of things wrong. I got busted for pot when I was 18, went for drink-driving when I was 18, and I've had two charges of obstructing, assaulting a police officer in their line of duty. $600 fine was the last one. They're relatively minor. You know, I'm not proud of having a record, I wish I didn't have a record, but jeez, I'm 51 years old, that's not too bad.

Tony Jardine: Some the things they're saying about us on TV, that we sell drugs to kids, you've got to be kidding. I got kids, I've got grandkids, you know. There's no way in the world I would put up with that sort of thing.

Ian Townsend: When this program comes out they're going to say, well, you've been fed these lines by this criminal motorcycle club and they're obviously pulling your leg here. What would your response be to that?

Tony Jardine: They'll say I'm putting a PR spin on it but I'm saying I'm not afraid of the truth, you know, investigate me. They've been investigating me for 20 years, they're saying I'm a criminal. Show me what criminal acts I've committed in the last 20 years. Bull shit.

Ian Townsend: If Tony Jardine commits a criminal act now, it could send him to jail for a very long time. If you're deemed a participant in a declared bikie gang and you're caught driving dangerously or possessing a dangerous drug, for instance, you'll get a mandatory 15 years added to your sentence. If, like Tony Jardine, you're an office bearer, it's an extra 25 years added to your sentence.

Even if he's only caught in a pub having a drink with two or more other bikies, Tony Jardine would face six months in solitary confinement. In fact, a week after I attended the Rebels barbecue on the Sunshine Coast, one of the men at that barbecue was arrested on just such a charge. Steven Smith was caught on CCTV at the Yandina Hotel drinking with his brother and brother in law, and two other friends.

Newsreader: Steven Michael Smith, Scott Michael Conley, Joshua Shane Carew, Paul Jeffery Lansdowne and Dan Whale were arrested last month for meeting at a Sunshine Coast hinterland hotel in November. They were charged under the State Government's new laws targeting criminal gang members meeting in public.

Magistrate Cliff Taylor set a trial date for the 24th of March in Maroochydore. About 50 motorcyclists gathered outside the court to protest against the new laws. Jo Skinner, ABC News, Sunshine Coast.

Ian Townsend: Steven Smith remains in jail after the Supreme Court rejected his application for bail. He refused to resign from the Rebels. The other four have been released on bail.

Bikies have become the face of organised crime in Australia. Other crime groups like Triads and the mafia keep a much lower profile.

The Australian Crime Commission says that organised crime costs the country about $15 billion a year. A large amount of that is the price families and society pay for drug addiction.

But even the Crime Commission isn't sure how much of that can be blamed on bikie gangs. The commission's acting CEO is Paul Jevtovic.

Paul Jevtovic: That's something that we have great difficulty being able to determine. So I don't have a definitive answer to that.

Ian Townsend: Are they the major front for organised crime in Australia though?

Paul Jevtovic: Look, I think they probably have one of the most high profile manifestations of organised crime in Australia and they have an active presence in all states and territories, but that's not to say that that necessarily means they're having the greatest impact.

Like all organised crime groups and criminal groups, they generate profits and they need to be able to move those profits and, wherever they can, endeavour to legitimise those profits, and so they will do whatever they need to be able to achieve that, and outlaw motorcycle gangs are no different to any other crime group.

Ian Townsend: Recently the Australian Crime Commission announced a half-billion-dollar haul of drugs and cash associated with a multi-national organised crime ring. A task force dubbed Eligo had been working for a year and identified a range of criminal groups working together to launder money made from drugs and even people smuggling.

Paul Jevtovic: We've confirmed the involvement of outlaw motorcycle gangs, criminal motorcycle gangs, a range of criminal groups, drug cartels, both here in Australia and across the globe.

Ian Townsend: In Queensland, the Government declared war on bikies four months ago, and at Brisbane's Roma Street Police Headquarters security is tight, but I'm told no tighter than it was before the crackdown.

This is where the head of Operation Resolute, Deputy Commissioner Brett Pointing, is based. He says the bikie gangs are keeping a lower profile now, and some members have quit. But recently police made a disturbing discovery in Townsville.

Brett Pointing: We found what amounts to be surveillance photos of police within a makeshift clubhouse. So I think it was a timely reminder that…and we know, and all the literature from all over the world shows this, that members of gangs do counter-surveillance on police. We shouldn't be shocked but when you find this evidence it does still shock you.

Ian Townsend: Since last October, more than 500 people have been charged with a range of offences under Operation Resolute. In a media release, police have said all those people are bikie participants, but as we heard earlier, less than 10 percent of them were actually charged under the new laws.

Brett Pointing:

Brett Pointing: In some ways we've had been criticised that we haven't arrested that many people under the new legislation, and I think that's a really good indicator that the laws are being applied fairly, considerately, and we're only applying those laws where we believe that we can prove the intent of the legislation, and that is to go after criminals.

Ian Townsend: So that's showing that you're being careful or that the laws aren't working, that there is only 40 out of those 500?

Brett Pointing: I think it's showing compliance with the new legislation. We're seeing very, very strict compliance with the new laws. We're not seeing large groups of members riding together, we're not seeing people going to clubhouses, they've closed down.

Ian Townsend: An expansion of the new laws is about to cast a much wider net.

Ian Townsend: The amendments are designed to stop participants in criminal gangs from infiltrating legitimate businesses. Tradies with links to bikie gangs could also lose their trading licences come July.

Brett Pointing:

Brett Pointing: In essence, it's a mixture of criminal law and administrative law. It's saying to people, hang on, if you want to be a security provider you can't be a participant of a criminal organisation. Second-hand dealers; we know that there's a real opportunity for people to sell proceeds of break and enters through second-hand dealers. We are really trying to tidy up these industries, but in doing so, you know, say to people, hang on, if you want to be an active legitimate participant in society, don't become a gang member.

Jarrod Bleijie: …the Tattoo Parlours Act 2013, the Tow Truck Act 1973, the Transport Planning and Coordination Act 1994, the Transport Planning and Coordination Regulation 2005, the Weapons Act 1990 and the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011 for particular purposes. I table the bill and the explanatory notes, and I nominate the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee to consider the Bill.

Ian Townsend: It's not the first time a Queensland Government has made laws to try to control bikie gangs. In 2009, the Bligh Labor Government introduced the Criminal Organisation Act. But under Labor's laws, a court order was needed to declare a criminal organisation.

The Newman LNP Government has bypassed that requirement. With the stroke of a pen, the Government has declared 26 motorcycle clubs to be criminal organisations, clubs such as the Rebels, Bandidos, Mongols and Hells Angels, but also lesser known clubs, like the Mobshitters and a group called Life and Death.

Back in 2009, one of the most passionate critics of that Labor Government bill was Jarrod Bleijie, then an Opposition MP, now Attorney General. He opposed it on the grounds that it restricted freedom of association.

Background Briefing couldn't obtain a copy of the audio of his speech from Queensland Parliament, but here's a reading of what Jarrod Bleijie said, taken from Hansard:

Jarrod Bleijie: [Reading] While I agree that people need to be protected from organised crime, there must also be the protection of personal liberties such as the freedom of association. The Premier and the Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services have stated that people who do the right thing have nothing to fear. I will repeat that: people who do the right thing have nothing to fear. I say to the people of Queensland that with this Government they do have something to fear. This Bill encroaches on their personal freedoms and liberties. A government that tries to remove these freedoms and liberties is a government that is to be feared.

Ian Townsend: Five years on, Jarrod Bleijie as Attorney General introduced the LNP Government's anti-bikie laws, which he says are justified, despite his previous concerns.

Jarrod Bleijie: Since 2009, some five years later, the criminal gangs have brought their fights into the public domain and the public were demanding a Government response and we've had to respond. We've given the police the powers to go after these criminal gangs; we've given the CMC the resources and the power to go after these criminal gangs.

Jarrod Bleijie: Well, look, these types of crime and the types of activity that they're involved in, absolutely not. We have a deliberate target; criminal gang members. We have said that these are not targeting innocent motorcycle riders, and they're not.

Ian Townsend: The United Motorcycle Council of Queensland says innocent motorcycle riders are being targeted. The council's hired a law firm to mount a challenge in the High Court, and that's expected to start within weeks. It has also hired a PR firm, Cole Lawson Communications, to publicise the case.

The firm's managing director is Margaret Lawson.

Margaret Lawson: I think one of the motivations for letting the public know that there is a High Court challenge imminent is to raise money, which is ultimately going to pay the legal fees, which are considerable.

Ian Townsend: The legal costs could be as much as quarter of a million dollars.

The Queensland Government, which is hiring its own PR company to put its side of the case, says the motorcycle council's simply running a scare campaign.

Premier Campbell Newman:

Campbell Newman: Right now they've hired a public affairs company, they're trying to scare men and women across this state who have nothing to fear, by a very elaborate, sophisticated social media and spin campaign in the media.

Margaret Lawson: It's a bit rich calling something 'spin' when all it involves is reading words out of the legislation. There is nothing 'spun' about looking at the letter of the law and not interpreting it in any kind of creative way but just saying, look, this is what the law says, this is something all Queenslanders need to be aware of.

Ian Townsend: Margaret Lawson says under the letter of the law, she could also be deemed a participant.

Margaret Lawson: Reading the legislation, a participant in a declared organisation is somebody who has taken part in the affairs of the organisation in any way. And the legislation actually says specifically or broadly 'in any way', and that's what's scary because yes, I am participating in some way; I have phone calls with my clients, I need to attend meetings, I attend press conferences, and I've done so on a number of occasions. So technically I suppose that makes me a participant according to the law.

Ian Townsend: The Queensland Law Society also has deep concerns about who could be caught up in these new laws.

The society's president is Annette Bradfield.

Annette Bradfield: It's the few people gathering together, whether it be the barbecue or having a drink at the local hotel, and all the sudden they're arrested and they're having to prove that they weren't a participant in some kind of group or that group doesn't exist to commit a certain criminal offence. So they're the kind of unintended consequences of people being arrested or dealt with. The same with what's known as the bikie legislation, again people going about their business but being pulled over and subject to intense questioning to determine whether or not they are associated with some kind of bikie gang.

Ian Townsend: A few weeks ago, Jamie Evans was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle when he was pulled over by the police. He's a member of a social club called the Misfits, which isn't on the Government's list of declared criminal organisations. He was wearing a camera in his helmet and he recorded what happened.

Policeman: I note that you're wearing a jacket sir?

Jamie Evans: Yes.

Policeman: Can you tell me about that jacket?

Jamie Evans: I just wear it when I ride.

Policeman: Can you tell me what it means?

Jamie Evans: It doesn't mean anything.

Policeman: And word 'Misfits', was does that mean to you?

Jamie Evans: It's a club that I'm in.

Policeman: And what type of club is it?

Jamie Evans: A social motorcycle club.

Policeman: How long have you been in that club sir?

Jamie Evans: About 14 months.

Policeman: When you say 'social motorcycle club', what does that…can you explain that club to me?

Jamie Evans: I don't understand the question. Social means social, we go riding.

Policeman: Okay do you have a clubhouse?

Jamie Evans: No.

Policeman: Or do you have a number of friends?

Jamie Evans: A number of friends.

Policeman: How many friends do you have?

Jamie Evans: How many friends do I have?

Policeman: Yeah in the club, how many people in the club?

Jamie Evans: I don't know, 30, 40.

Policeman: Before you said you hate police. Is there any reason you hate police?

Jamie Evans: Because you've pulled me over 21 times for no reason.

Ian Townsend: The Queensland Police Service later apologised for inconveniencing Jamie Evans.

Deputy Commissioner Brett Pointing says a growing number of bikies are pulling out of clubs that are declared as criminal organisations.

Brett Pointing: We're getting letters from lawyers every day with affidavits saying my client is disassociated, is no longer a member.

Ian Townsend: The families of bikies are also having to do this because they have been caught up in these laws.

I'm meeting Grace Hill in a suburban house near the Logan Motorway in Brisbane. Grace's husband Kevin Hill was a member of the Bandidos, and he's currently in jail.

Also here is Kevin's sister, Colleen. Under the law, both Grace and Colleen have to prove that they're not associates of bikie gangs to be able to visit him in jail.

Grace Hill: Myself and Colleen have been put down as association. If we've got any proof of being in association to the club, we've got all rights stopped from seeing Kevin, from talking to Kevin throughout his sentence.

Colleen: And I actually got an affidavit signed for me to say that…I went to my solicitor and got him to write this letter for me to the prison to say I wasn't an associate, so I could see my brother.

Ian Townsend: Kevin Hill has a criminal record, and he was already in jail after being caught driving unlicensed, which breached his parole for assault. And then the bikie laws came in and he was moved into solitary confinement at the special bikie wing of the maximum security Woodford Correctional Centre, 100 kilometres north of Brisbane. He's allowed out of his cell for only one or two hours a day.

Kevin Hill's wife, Grace:

Grace Hill: Just sit in the yard. Kevin said the other day they're not allowed to lean on the walls, if they lean on the walls they get told to get off the walls, if they get told again then they get put in their cell. They can make a coffee; they can make a piece of toast. There's nothing for them, they don't have any gym equipment, no TV, no exercising equipment.

Colleen: They gave him a piece of paper and a pencil but they didn't give him a sharpener.

Ian Townsend: This type of punishment is also a concern to the Queensland Law Society. Annette Bradfield:

Annette Bradfield: The concern is placing people in solitary confinement, certainly for a large part of the day, they are significant decisions, they should be decisions not lightly made and not blanket decisions. And the concern is we're all about rehabilitation and that creates a far better community, if people who have done the wrong thing are given the opportunity to rehabilitate. And again, not being an expert, but I can't see how putting someone in, say, 23 hours of solitary confinement is going to help rehabilitate that person.

Ian Townsend: There's one other punishment that's for bikies only; they have to wear pink.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman:

Campbell Newman: Yes, they will be wearing pink overalls. And the reason is this; that these are individuals who are bullies. They are bullies and they like to wear scary-looking gear; leather jackets, they have the tattoos, they have their colours. And we know that asking them…well, not asking them, telling them to wear pink is going to be embarrassing for them. Make no apologies for that. Thugs and bullies need to be brought into line. They need to be clearly shown that their ways have to change.

Ian Townsend: But according to the wife and sister of Kevin Hill, the pink uniforms aren't an embarrassment.

Grace Hill: Hot pink, like fuchsia pink, but they actually like it, it looks good on them.

Colleen: I think because he's got the dark skin, it makes him look really nice, fresh, yeah it suited him.

Grace Hill: It does, it suits him.

Ian Townsend: While the new laws are being widely applied to punish members of outlaw motorcycle clubs, Deputy Police Commissioner Brett Pointing reiterates that they were written to tackle organised crime more broadly.

Brett Pointing: I think it's important to go back to the legislation again, that it doesn't mention criminal motorcycle gangs; it's really about criminal organisations.

Ian Townsend: Are the resources being spent appropriately then if…the motorcycle gangs might be the most obvious, but they might not be the biggest? The impression I guess the public gets is that the motorcycle gangs are public enemy number one and all your resources going into them. Is that correct?

Brett Pointing: Well, I think, you know, there's no doubt about it with the increasing in the violence that I mentioned that it's certainly up there as a major focus of police attention.

Ian Townsend: On the Sunshine Coast, at the Rebels barbecue, chapter president Tony Jardine flatly denies any involvement in organised crime.

Tony Jardine: I don't know the nitty-gritty of other clubs, but to me what organised crime is you sit down at a table and you work out a plan to make money illegally. That doesn't happen. I can honestly say I have never, ever in my life sat down and organised anything with anybody when it comes to criminal…we're flat out organising a barbecue.

Ian Townsend: You've got a barbecue tonight?

Tony Jardine: One of the member's wives organised that [laughs].

Ian Townsend: Tony Jardine does admit that some motorcycle clubs have changed in recent years.

Tony Jardine: Just lately, there's a lot of people who join clubs for the wrong reasons and it probably has, you know, the criminal element probably has picked up a little bit. But the clubs themselves do not operate as a criminal organisation. You know, I swear on my kids, we do not sit down and organise a crime to do.

Ian Townsend: After outbreaks of bikie violence in 2008 and 2009, South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland introduced laws to control the gangs, without much success.

The other states are now taking a close look at Queensland's new laws, to see if they fare any better. But there is growing political and community opposition to the severity of those laws.

There were protests in a number of cities on Australia Day. In Brisbane, 2,000 people attended a rally to oppose the Queensland laws. Independent State MP Peter Wellington was among those addressing the crowd.

Peter Wellington: Ladies and gentlemen, today on Australia Day we usually celebrate our freedoms and our liberties, we are usually the envy of countries around the world. And yet today here at our freedom rally we are celebrating the start of the fight to win back those freedoms and liberties that Campbell Newman has taken away. Shame Campbell Newman!

[cheers]

Ian Townsend: There's a wider concern here; that any group that gets together to break the law, be it bikies, protesters, or even school kids, could become a target of the VLAD Act.

Former Gold Coast detective and now crime researcher and academic, Terry Goldsworthy:

Terry Goldsworthy: If you have a group of juveniles who are sexting and that is the only reason they're communicating, because they are sexting, they fulfil the statutory requirements to be considered under VLAD. Are we going to see it applied to juvenile sexting? They are all possible scenarios where it may be applied. Now, if it's not going to be applied, the question is why. If they fulfil the requirements of the Act, why would it not be applied? I mean, because that becomes an issue of discrimination against bikie groups engaged in criminal activity versus other groups engaged in criminal activity. They should all be treated equally

Ian Townsend: Later this year, the G20 heads of government will be meeting in Brisbane. There's already special legislation for it, the G20 (Safety and Security) Bill 2013, which will suspend some civil liberties. It includes the right to arrest without cause.

The VLAD laws could also be invoked, says Terry Goldsworthy.

Terry Goldsworthy: You know, if you had some protesters there who got together, didn't like G20 and said, 'We're going to try and bust through the police lines,' whatever else, well, there's an affray offence for a start or a riot offence, that's a declared offence. You have three or more people, they are together for that informal purpose of committing a criminal purpose…well, look out, here comes VLAD.

Ian Townsend: The VLAD Act faces an imminent challenge in the High Court. If the laws survive that, the government may describe to scrap them after three years. Queensland Premier Campbell Newman:

Campbell Newman: Ultimately in less than three years time these laws can disappear from the statute books in Queensland because that's the intention of the government. There is a three-year review and they go. I didn't particularly want to see these laws implemented. The sooner we can get rid of them the better, but it starts by seeing us get rid of the gangs.